A big birthday present for the fiesty septuagenarian who turned 75 on Monday this week. Pinter is one of the two contemporary British playwrights that I admire most - the other being Tom Stoppard. Been to a few productions of the Pinter plays both in the Edinburgh Fringe festival and London's West End. The most popular of his plays include 'Ashes to Ashes', 'Homecoming', 'No Man's Land' etc but my personal best is ''Old Times' - which according to his biographer Michael Billington, is 'a work of beautiful elegiac obliquity'. Whatever that means! An enormously fulfilling year for Pinter and indeed for British theatre. 29 plays under his belt, he's recently embarked on a new project - a radio play in collaboration with the composer James Clarke. It was aired on BBC Radio 3 on Monday to coincide with his birthday. The delectable Indira Varma - Meera Nair's protagonist in her film, 'Kama Sutra' - has a part in it. Congratulations are in order for this good old 'pain in the arse' (by his own admission, mind you!)!!